


Happy

by monsieurkittentoes



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Bones is grumpy but Jim wins him over, Could be McKirk if you want but not if you don't want it to be, First Meetings, Gen, New kid on the ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 06:41:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5775541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monsieurkittentoes/pseuds/monsieurkittentoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After spending nearly a decade with his life getting steadily worse, Leonard McCoy finds himself on board the Enterprise as the new CMO. He's not happy about this at all; until he meets his new best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy

**Author's Note:**

> I love first meetings. I love seeing how relationships form from the ground up. And one of the biggest things I think we were cheated of in Star Trek was getting to see everyone meet for the first time. As a result, I've decided to fill in some blanks. This very well may be the first of many first meeting scenarios, but for now I'm presenting it as a stand alone. Enjoy!
> 
> Thank you to Jordan, my own personal Leonard McCoy, for looking this over for me.

Dr. Leonard H. McCoy wasn't happy. He hadn't been happy in a long time. In the past decade, he had gotten divorced. His daughter had stopped speaking to him. His jobs on planets kept falling through, and now he was stuck on a goddamn starship as chief medical officer for the next _five years_. A ship with a sickbay he couldn't make any sense of, for that matter, and a captain who hadn't even bothered to shake his hand when he'd beamed up. A lot of people would've taken this as a good opportunity, but not Leonard. This wasn't his career going up. No. This was it leveling out – at rock bottom.

The turbolift opened and closed while Leonard was trying to figure out one of the new scanners. He turned to see the Captain walking in to sickbay. _Finally,_ he thought grouchily.

Leonard could tell who he was, but only by his rank stripes. The man was so boyishly young that Leonard would've sooner believed he was an older ensign than the captain had he not been warned about this prior. He wasn't a tall man, seeming about level with Leonard himself in height. He was just on the threshold of being blond, with hazel eyes that brightened into a smile as he saw Leonard. He opened his mouth to speak, but the doctor had other ideas.

"About damn time. I called for you two hours ago."

The Captain faltered, but only for a moment. Leonard got that a lot. His bluntness wasn't 'appealing' to people in authority. It was one of many reasons Leonard had gone straight for Doctor McCoy and never settled on Nurse McCoy. It was also one of the reasons he had been dreading taking this position.

"Sorry," said the Captain. "I've only been captain for a few weeks, and I seem to be swamped every waking second with paperwork and jobs to do. Otherwise I would've been there to greet you when you beamed up." His smile was back. It was like watching the sun rise.

Leonard hated how much he didn't hate this man already, especially considering he was making _excuses_ about not coming to meet one of his main officers first thing. But at the same time, he seemed so honestly apologetic that Leonard felt even that anger seeping out of him. It was like trying to stay angry with a puppy.

"I'm Captain James T. Kirk,” the Captain was saying. He held out a hand and gave Leonard a warm smile.

Leonard shook the hand firmly. "Leonard McCoy," he said. "Now, you need to do something about this damned sickbay."

Kirk frowned. "Well I'll write down any complaints you have, but I was assured this medical bay was outfitted with the most updated and efficient equipment Starfleet currently offers. I'm not sure what else you could want that I can supply."

"That's exactly my problem," said Leonard, gesturing around the sickbay in irritation. "It's too _much_ stuff. I won't be able to find anything I need in all this mess. Whatever happened to good, old fashioned, legitimate _medicine?_ The kind that didn't involve so many machines you barely needed a doctor to work them at all?"

"Would you rather go back to lobotomies?" asked Kirk.

Leonard opened his mouth to start yelling about how he wasn't a damned sadist, when he saw the look on Kirk's face. He was _grinning_. Like he was playing some kind of _game_ with Leonard.

"Don't you sass me, young man."

The moment the words left Leonard's mouth, he regretted it. As young and ridiculous as Kirk was, he was still the captain, and Leonard had to respect him. Saying something like that could get him thrown right back off the ship, looking for work in clinics.

But Kirk wasn't angry. As a matter of fact, Kirk was _laughing._

By all accounts, Leonard should've been upset he wasn't being taken seriously, or at the very least apologetic about being disrespectful. He had gotten into bad shape over less in the past decade. But there was something so genuinely kind about the Captain's eyes and the sound of his laugh that Leonard couldn't feel anything except the strange desire to laugh along with him.

"I'm sorry," Kirk said with a grin. "I will never sass you again, sir."

Leonard squinted at his face. First he had laughed when Leonard had blatantly disrespected him, and now he was calling him 'sir'. "What's wrong with you?" he asked suspiciously. "You got some kinda smilin' disease or something?"

Kirk just laughed again. "No sir," he replied.

Leonard raised an eyebrow.

But before he could continue trying to figure out how this man managed to embody sunlight and made him feel safer than he had in years, there was a noise from the comm on the wall and a female voice saying "Kirk to Bridge."

Kirk glanced towards it. "I have to go," he said, starting towards the door. “I will get a list from you later of stuff you want removed. We can't exactly have our CMO unable to do his job, so I'll do whatever you need to make it comfortable for you." He stopped for a second and looked back at Leonard. "Are you happy now?" he teased.

And Leonard realized, reluctantly, that there was a very good chance he would be soon.

 


End file.
